1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a device used to render a weapon safe by preventing the insertion of a magazine with live ammunition into its magazine well and to prevent sand, water, and other contaminants from entering a weapon through its magazine well. Specifically, the invention is a plug composed of a compressible material dimensionally larger than the interior of a magazine well so that insertion of the plug into the well requires compression of the plug.
2. Background
Current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan highlight problems pertaining to the security and maintainability of magazine-fed personal weapons, non-limiting examples including rifles and handguns. In one example, operational protocols prohibit soldiers from carrying loaded firearms within areas deemed safe zones and where dignitaries are present. Accordingly, soldiers are not permitted to engage magazines to firearms, even when empty. An open magazine well allows dirt, sand, water, and other contaminants to enter the well, thereafter fouling components which are critical to proper function of a weapon.
The related arts include several noteworthy devices.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,528,765 and 4,709,496, Johnson describes safety devices for use with firearms having a magazine well for holding a removable magazine. Devices prevent a firearm from being unintentionally fired and are color coded to indicate when a firearm is in a safe condition. Devices include a body dimensionally smaller than the magazine well so as to allow for the insertion and removal of the device without binding. Devices are composed of a durable high density plastic with sufficient strength to prevent deformation which might permit dirt to enter the magazine well. Each device includes a detent for interacting with a magazine retention latch on a firearm to secure the device within a magazine well.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,062, Johnson describes a safety device for a repeating firearm including a main body which fits in a magazine well of a firearm, closing its outer end. An outer end of the main body is clearly visible at the end of the magazine well when the main body is properly located therein. A chamber-blocking member movably attached to the main body excludes cartridges from the firing chamber of the weapon and, in one embodiment of the invention, includes a barrier which prevents a firing pin from reaching the primer of a cartridge which may be located in the firing chamber undetected.
Devices described by Johnson and others are mechanically complex, difficult to manufacture, cumbersome to use, ineffective, impractical, and/or unable to prevent liquid from infiltrating into a magazine well.
As is readily apparent from the discussions above, the related arts do not include a plug comprised of a compressible material that is dimensionally larger than a magazine well so as to require compression of the plug for proper insertion into a well.
Accordingly, what is required is a compressible plug which is capable of rendering a weapon safe by preventing insertion of a magazine with live rounds into its magazine well and/or to prevent solid and liquid contaminants from entering a weapon through its magazine well.